Should I build another MRAP? Need your advice/criticism, please.

tomcata3 said:

That thing looks cool, I saw it on ebay. You should have sealed the floor in the back( I can see daylight from pics of under truck). How are you suppossed to get the spare tire down, it must take 3 guys . You also should have fold down seats in back
If you were going to build another I would do it on a 5ton with automatic trans and have some kind of device to lower spare tire
You make nice trucks

Click to expand...

Yeah, kind of hate the idea of parting with it, but if I kept every build, I'd need a yard the size of Nellis;=). Someone is going to get the most unique Deuce that I have ever seen!!

Excellent point on the floorboards. The film specs called for a plywood floor, but I just couldn't bring myself around to putting anything on there that would not be able to handle 10,000 lbs. We should have caulked them - or maybe I can add some spray on insulation to seal them. I'll have to give that some thought for the next one.

I also wanted to put some foam inslation in the back and some kind of wall covering for the interior, but when I decided to sell it after we were done with it, I figured that I would let the new owner finish the inside.

Good point on the spare - at almost 300 lbs, it would take 3 people to get down and 6 to get it back up. Some kind of davit on the rear is an excellent idea - kind of like they do on the M923's - now that you mention using one maybe for a future build. I have a couple of them, and that is a nice set-up on the spare now. I bet we could use it - although the height on them will be a problem. No way it can be shipped on a truck - maybe an RGN.

Great feedback - and I appreciate the high praise as well, thank you!!

exbrown said:

Nice looking truck. M35A3 would be a good truck to use if you want to stay with the Deuce. I would also think a 5 ton would work great.

Boarding ladder
Troop seats
Fans or cooling
2 bucket seats in the front so you can move from front to back
Top hatch / gun ring / lookout perch
racks or lockers for equipment in the back

Good luck and keep us up to date on your new build.

Click to expand...

WOW - outsnading feedback, thank you! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes!!

I didn't think of an A3 - great idea, and I can keep the height down that way. Bucket seats would have been perfect for this - wish I thought of that. And a boarding ladder and fans in the back since the windows don't open would have also been great ideas!

I didn't think about putting a gun ring on this - that would have been awesome, and I have a couple in stock. Hope you don't mind if I steel some of these for a future build!

I did think about putting in either troop seats or some kind of bench seats in the back, but wasn't sure if everyone wanted that. We didn't do any filming inside, so it didn't matter if the inside was done. But I figured someone would want to make an RV or even a workshop out of this, so I was afraid to commit it to a certain use. Good ideas too!

-Steve

MWMULES said:

How is the frame flex on the body? I don't see any separation between the cab and rear. For a prop it is kool, but my guess is it would be pretty in side of it. Please start an album in your user CP of the build if possible.

Click to expand...

Good question on frame flex. Although it wouldn't have been an issue for the amount of work we had to use it for, I was worried about it. So just to be safe, we seperated the cargo body from the cab. Hard to see on the pictures I posted here, but if you look closely at the higher resolution photo's on eBay, you will see that there is a 1" by 2" rubber seal all the way around the cab that the cargo body mates up to. Still watertight, but plenty of room for twisting and flexing.

There is so much that could be done with the inside, that I wouldn't even know where to begin. If it were going to be mond, I;d have bunk beds, a kitchenette, plenty of storage and seating - it'd be an awesome hunting rig!!

Good suggestion on starting an album. I'll do it on the next build for sure.

-Steve

Recovry4x4 said:

I would gauge my decision on building another one on what that one sells for.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess at the end of the day, that is the wise thing to do. I have a ton of cash and manhours into this one, but a lot of it was paid for by the studio. I guess the wise thing to do before i get all excited and starting building a fleet of 'em is to see if there is even a market for them. Thanks for grounding me! I guess i will know that in a week!! 20 minutes reading reponses here, and I was already planning to get a bigger production shop

First off, cool truck and you obviously did a ton of work. I applaud the effort and the imagination.

If you want some critical feedback, though, the sheetmetal work on the rear looks a little shoddy in some of your pics (attached). I understand it was for a movie and it all depends on what you're wanting to get out of it. There's a right price for everything. But, if you're thinking about making another for the sole purpose of selling, I would pay a little more attention to the finish work. It'll look better and you'll make more money in the long run.

KsM715 said:

Nicely done for a parade/carshow vehicle. The only thing that bugs me about it (as fars a asthetics) is the hood/front end. Its to blocky. You have angles on the cab and box, it should have matching angles on the hood sides and front.

Is that spare mount braced at all? It looks like if you swung it out it would rip right off the box.

Click to expand...

Can't say I disagree with that at all. I too think the front end is too boxy - but we didn't have much say in that. That was done from the spec we were given. If it were up to me, I would have put an Internation front end on it for the nice lines - great angles and no-nonsense looking grill. Butwhen you build for projects like this, they have a very well defined look that they are going for. If we do a next one will be "just because" and we'll design it from the ground up for sure.

The spare mount bracket isn't going anywhere. It is solid - mounted to 2" x 3" steel beam, and it won't swing out beyond 90 degrees. You'll have to rip it off with a mack truck. That was something that they didn't spec, so we could have built it just for looks, but I wanted it to carry a real spare and because of that it had to be beefy.

Great observations, thanks!

-Steve

Varyag said:

it looks really fun, and awesome to make an RV out of, but I agree that frame flex would be an issue looking at just the pics.

I agree with the 5 ton Idea but make it out of a 818 so it isn't a block long.

Click to expand...

Both good observations! The cab is seperate because we worried about that too, and GREAT idea to do it out of a M818! Thanks!

chicklin said:

First off, cool truck and you obviously did a ton of work. I applaud the effort and the imagination.

If you want some critical feedback, though, the sheetmetal work on the rear looks a little shoddy in some of your pics (attached). I understand it was for a movie and it all depends on what you're wanting to get out of it. There's a right price for everything. But, if you're thinking about making another for the sole purpose of selling, I would pay a little more attention to the finish work. It'll look better and you'll make more money in the long run.

Click to expand...

Get rid of that tan and throw some camo on that thing and it would hide most of those sheetmetal imperfections.

Cucvnut said:

your that guy who over charges for cucv's on ebay and paints everything black so we cant tell how messed up stuff is!

Click to expand...

Ummmm, guilty... At least on painting the engines.

On the prices, we don't actual set one. Rather than put a price on them, I always sell only with a 1.00 start price no reserve auction. Half of that is just because I never know what to charge, and the other half is that I figure the bidders should be the ones deciding what a truck is worth, not the seller based on what I want to get for it.

If nothing else, we're hopefully driving up everyone's resale value on your personal trucks, as at least there is something to compare them to on eBay when trying to justify an asking price to a buyer if you ever sell a truck.

And I hear you on painting the engines - I just can't bring myself to leave them the way they come from the military. They usually have a couple of coats of paint on them already, and sometimes even different colors. Plus, we mess them up even more when we do all new hoses, belts, fluids, etc., so I always think they look better painted.

sigo said:

The National Training Center at Fort Irwin uses visually modified (vismod) M923 5 tons as substitutes for MRAPs. Most of the actual MRAPs have gone to OEF/OIF so they came up with some pretty good mockups for training. I've got some pictures of 'em from my last rotation earlier this year.

Click to expand...

No kidding, really? Any chance I could talk you into posting a couple of pictures? I'd love to see what they did. Many thanks!!

-Steve

What movie, I want to keep an eye out for it?

You should not build any more of these for sale to the public for use on public roads because to do so is in complete, willful violation of dozens of NHTSA regulations for vehicle completion manufacturers. You really should have your counsel look into this, before you get shut down or slapped with a lawsuit you can't pay. While you are at it, have him check into the fines for operating your utterly non-compliant paint operation which you picture in your ads.

KsM715 said:

Do you have any pics of how the pintle and shackles are attatched?

Criticism? Well you asked for it. After reading your ebay ad and all the bragging at the end about you and your shop I would atleast expect straight panels. The ebay photos really show how badly the sides and angled roof panels are. If Im going to do business with a multi-million dollar shop I would want million dollar results. Those panels look like something I would do in my driveway.

Click to expand...

I don't have pictures of the shacles or the pintle, but I can take some. We used the original pintle hitch, in fact, we didn't even take it off - just worked around it, so it is not for looks. And on the shacles, they are original and mounted in the original bolt holes with the same hardware. We pulled the bumperettes off, sheeted the back, and remounted the shackles in the same spots, so they are still structural tie down/lifting points.

And valid criticism, exactly what I was looking for. You are 100% correct. This truck was done for a show that was filimg it almost straight on. Therefore we wrapped it in steel instead of using panels. For a future build, if I do one, that is an area that we would spend more time (and money for sure.

Often for film work you focus on certain areas. And if we do one again, for sure we'll do the cargo body a little differently.

Appreciate the honest feedback!!

swbradley1 said:

Jeff, I noticed those as well and they are really prominent on the Ebay listing. I would think that the angled panel dimples were caused by welding without accounting for the heat transfer in the thinner steel.

If this was built for a movie then I suspect it didn't matter.

It still looks good, not perfect but good.

Click to expand...

Good observation. Jeff is dead-on on the panels, and you are correct on the filming.

It actually wasn't the welds - the problem was that we just wrapped the truck with 12-foot sections of heavy steel sheeting. In hindsight, I probably should have gone with a thinner sheet metal, but I was worried about the welds.

You can see on sections that were cust and welding, there wasn't any issue with the heat transfer. The problem you see on the sides was because at 10-foot high, we put a solid sheet of steel over the top so it would be water tight (to house cameras and electronics in potentiallyinclement weather), and then bent them (or tried to fold I should say by hand. That proved almost impossible because the steel was so think, so we used a beam welded to the forks of a heavy forklift to bend them over the steel frame.

Needless to say, it could have been a lot better, and in hindsight not a great idea. But it worded for what we built it for, and lesson learned. If we wind up doing another one, we'll cut each section of steel and weld it to each section, that will eliminate any wrinkling for sure.

-Steve

i dont know if this was a concept truck or if it was used for training...but here is a m923a2 converted to look like a Buffalo..

Derrickl112 said:

i dont know if this was a concept truck or if it was used for training...but here is a m923a2 converted to look like a Buffalo..

Click to expand...

They are used for training. Route Clearance units use them stateside so all the real Buffalo's can go downrange.

I know I have seen them in use at Ft Irwn, Ft McCoy, Ft Leanord Wood and Ft Polk.

And you guys thought the A3's were ugly.

Monkeyboyarmy said:

And you guys thought the A3's were ugly.

Click to expand...

They are ugly, especially the one sitting in my yard

NDT said:

You should not build any more of these for sale to the public for use on public roads because to do so is in complete, willful violation of dozens of NHTSA regulations for vehicle completion manufacturers. You really should have your counsel look into this, before you get shut down or slapped with a lawsuit you can't pay. While you are at it, have him check into the fines for operating your utterly non-compliant paint operation which you picture in your ads.

Click to expand...

I can't wait to see the answer to this one.... Where is the *POPCORN* guy when we need him! Attorney's are like nuclear weapons... one side uses them and then everyone goes broke!

rwbrown72 said:

I can't wait to see the answer to this one.... Where is the *POPCORN* guy when we need him! Attorney's are like nuclear weapons... one side uses them and then everyone goes broke!

Click to expand...

Heck, they let people drive Yugo's on the road, what can be worse than that!